


A Long Time Ago in a Grocery Store Far Far Away...

by Niknight



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grocery Store, Based on a Tumblr Post, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Risking life and limb to return a cart, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 09:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10738785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niknight/pseuds/Niknight
Summary: A long time ago in a grocery store far far away...  The customers were still terrible and the closing crew continued to be useless.A short snippet of a day in the life of Rey and the gang if they happened to work in grocery store.  Shenanigans ensue.





	A Long Time Ago in a Grocery Store Far Far Away...

Rey slams the door to warehouse open, the sharp bang makes her coworkers jump and eye her warily. It is 8:05 AM, the store has been open for five minutes and already the customers are getting on her nerves. She argued with one for the first two minutes about how green squash and zucchini are the same thing, then she had to explain to an irate woman about how they did not carry the obscure product mentioned by that doctor on daytime television, and was then yelled at by a man for not having any cauliflower out when he arrived at the stroke of 8–like it was her fault that closers did nothing!

She leans against a plastic wrapped pallet of bananas and lets out a sigh as she hits her head against the cardboard boxes. She reaches on top of the stack to grab her Red Bull and cherishes every sip she takes–it’s going to be a long day. She was in the department alone, again. Her supervisor had neglected to tell her that he had requested off, again. To top it off, the closer had shirked his duties and did nothing all night, again. At least she had Finn and Poe to look forward to later in the day. With that happy thought in mind, she chugs the rest of her Red Bull and shoves off from the bananas to hunt down a u-boat.

————————————————

When Finn pulls his car into the parking lot, he takes a moment to look himself in the eye in his review mirror and take a few deep breaths. It was payday. He could do this. He needed the money. There was no reason to be afraid. After a sufficient self-pep talk, he gets out of the car and adjusts his name tag, double checking to make sure the corgi sticker was still there. He smiles to his reflection in the car and heads into the store, secretly hoping that the front desk will be busy or empty. His stomach drops when he sees the short platinum blonde hair of the customer service girl, Phasma. Her back is turned to him as she stocks the cigarettes. He takes a deep breath and approaches the desk.

“H-hey Phasma, could I get my pay check?” he asks meekly. So much for being brave and strong, he mentally chides himself.

Phasma whirls around, immediately making eye contact. Her eyes narrow into a glare and a corner of her upper lip raises in a sneer. She turns, grabs the plastic container of checks, and drops it in front of him.

“FN-2187,” she says with a disgusted tone. She pages through the checks until she comes across his initials and number. “Here you go, traitor.” She all but throws the check at him before throwing the container back on its shelf and returning to the cigarettes. Finn swallows hard and turns to leave but is stopped by a hand landing on his shoulder.

“Looks like she still hasn’t forgiven you for switching from customer service to stock.”

“Dammit, Poe, don’t scare me like that!” Finn yells at Poe Dameron.

“I’m not sorry. You’re adorable when you’re scared,” Poe says with his best smile. Finn can’t stay angry at him for long, and the two walk back to the produce section with their arms linked.

“Hey, Poe? How come I never see you getting your paycheck from Phasma?” Finn asks, suddenly realizing that he had never seen his friend pick up a check from the desk, even when it was payday.

“Oh. Uh… Perks of being employee of the month. I get my check directly from the cash office,” Poe says, biting the inside of his cheek to keep him from giving away his smile.  
“So that’s why I never see Rey go up there either?”

“Yeahhh. Yeah. That’s why. You just need to make employee of the month and you never have to go up to her again–it’s an incentive,” Poe explains, lying on the fly. Finn slept through half of the orientation, particularly the part where they explained setting up direct deposit, so Poe and Rey had been keeping it a secret from him. It helped that he had yet to receive an “Employee of the Month” award, so he firmly believed that there were special perks that came with the photo on the wall, and they weren’t about to correct him.

————————————————

When the two arrive in the back of the store, they find Rey filling an endcap with broccoli, taking care to make sure that they are all in the proper orientation as she creates her little forest of the green vegetable. Poe is about to rouse her from her trance-like state when the music cuts out and is replaced by Hux’s bored drawl.

“Kylo, outside to return a cart. Kylo, outside for a cart return.”

Rey’s head snaps up and she turns to her friends with an excited smile while pulling out her phone.

“Come on! We need to see if he can break his record!” she says enthusiastically, not the least bit surprised that her friends were there already. The trio quickly make their way outside where Kylo is stretching and jumping up and down to limber up. Hux is leaning against a column not far from him, eyeing the satellite that managed to wander its way across a busy street and into their parking lot. Kylo twists his neck to both sides to crack it before standing next to Hux.

“I’m ready,” he says, voice full of determination. He eyes the street and notes the remains of the morning rush hour. He anticipates a new record to be made today–it’s the first satellite cart to make it over since the new gas station was built in what used to be some green space between the store and the street. More concrete means less maneuvering. He takes his mark and Hux turns to Rey and nods. She pulls up the stopwatch app nods back as her finger hovers over the green START.

“GO!” Hux barks. Rey nearly instantaneously hits start as Kylo sprints to the cart. They laugh as he struggles to push the cart over the small grassy area that remained between the store and the gas station, but quickly fall silent as he disappears around the corner of the station. They hear the tell-tale sound of angry horns and know he’s made it to the street. 

“Hey! I need to get my check approved!” an angry voice snaps their attention to the open cart door where a customer was poking his head out.

“Are you a cart?” Hux asks, his tone deadpans. The customer looks taken aback and confused.

“N-no. Why?”

“Then why are you in the cart door? I don’t approve checks for carts,” he says, still maintaining his composure. The customer mutters angrily to himself before returning to his cashier. “Idiots. Honestly, just wait an extra couple of minutes, it’s not going to kill you,” Hux murmurs. He shakes his head and rolls his eyes before turning to go in through the cart door. He stops and turns to Rey. “Be sure to hit the time when he touches the cart door, not a second before or after, got it?” Rey nodded furiously before returning to watch the parking lot.

“How long has it been?” Finn asks, straining to see the phone screen over Rey’s shoulder.

“Three minutes, fifty seconds,” Rey replies after a quick glance at the phone.

“He needs to hurry up if he’s going to beat the record,” Poe says to himself, staring off in the distance, waiting to hear horns or see his figure across the street.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

The trio jump as they hear what can only be described as a battle cry instead of the usual horns. Their faces break into grins as they see the dark figure of Kylo Ren running around the corner of the gas station with forty seconds to spare. They start cheering and shouting at him to hurry up and he gets his second wind, sprinting the rest of the way to touch the cart return doors with fifteen seconds left to spare.

“Four minutes, forty-five seconds!” Rey cheers as she, Finn, and Poe embrace a sweaty, red-faced Kylo Ren while excitedly jumping up and down.

“Well done, Ren,” Hux says as he emerges from the cart doors. “Now go round up carts, we’re picking up some.” Kylo looks defeated as the excitement drains from his face while he puts on his neon green safety vest and grabs the cart hook from its place on the cart door handle.

“I hate you,” he growls as he passes by the smug ginger, shoulders slumped.

“I know,” Hux says with a smirk. He looks to the other three who are staring open-mouthed at him, wondering how he could be so cruel to the man who just broke a record, and risked his life to return a cart for sport. “Get back to work! You don’t get paid to just stand around all day!” he snaps at them, causing them to jump and run back inside to their respective positions.

Hux smiles to himself as he returns to the fronts to approve checks and alcohol sales, today is a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first Star Wars fic. I used to write bandom back in the day (which feels like eons ago now), but after the SW resurgence, I have been sucked back in.  
> This short one-shot is based off of [Brandy Brand's comic](http://branbrandio.tumblr.com/post/143352839954/star-store-episode-2-the-original-star-wars) which is based off of [Robespierrre's Star Wars grocery store au](http://robespierrre.tumblr.com/search/grocery). Seeing as how I work in a grocery store, I connected with this on a near-spiritual level and started writing. I did post this to tumblr a few months ago, but I finally worked myself up to posting it on here. My tumblr can be found [HERE](https://cynicism-sarcasm.tumblr.com/).  
> There is implied Stormpilot and Kylux in this, but nothing actually happens--it's just based off of the AU prompts.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
